1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer graphics and, more particularly, to hardware implemented methods and an apparatus for incorporating a border region within an image region.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal display (LCD) controller designs typically use an overlay technique for applying a border to a main image. In this technique, the overlay is placed on top of the main image and the transparent bits (where the image data is shown) are specified. The memory requirements are relatively large for this technique as both the overlay image and the main image are stored in memory. Of course, the power consumption increases along with the memory requirements.
The increased memory and higher power consumption rate become a problem for certain battery operated consumer electronic devices. For example, with respect to cell phones, it is becoming commonplace to capture an image through a camera of the cell phone, place a border around the image, and transmit the image to another user. However, the traditional border generation scheme using an overlay consumes an excessive amount of memory and power for the cell phone applications. Techniques to address these shortcomings sacrifice border design choices and limit the user's ability to customize the border in order to reduce the memory requirements and power consumption.
As a result, there is a need to solve the problems of the prior art to provide a border generation scheme that reduces memory requirements and power consumption without limiting the border options available to a user.